


You will remember me for centuries

by CelebrateTheFreedom



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky Barnes Discovers Fangirls, Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 14:36:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16955847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelebrateTheFreedom/pseuds/CelebrateTheFreedom
Summary: Bucky comes back to Steve.Then he discovers the internet.





	You will remember me for centuries

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how I feel about this story. Hope you enjoy it anyway.  
> None of the characters are mine and all that jazz.

For some time after coming back to Steve, Bucky was taking it slow to catch up with the rest of the world. Getting his memories back was the number one goal on his mind. He went to therapy, talked to Bruce and Shuri and made endless tests on his brain and blood.

 

Some hurt, more psychologically than physically, he might admit. But living with Steve was a game-changer. He was patient, kind and he was a little shit, too, don’t get Bucky wrong, but it was like Bucky craved every little part of Steve and with every memory and every word they shared, it seemed like the burden he carried lessened.

 

“I’m not the same man, Steve,” Bucky said one afternoon when they were lounging in their living room between Steve's missions. Bucky hadn’t been cleared to join him yet.

 

“Neither am I. But I think I like the person you are now.” Steve said looking up briefly from the book he was reading and smiled at him.

 

Bucky nudged Steve’s leg with his foot, getting his attention again. “Think? Just say you love me and go.” He had a smirk on his face. He watched Steve’s expression go from teasing to fond.

 

“I do love you, Bucky. I’m with you…”

 

“…till the end of the line, you sap.” Bucky finished for him, a fond smile plastered on his face. It was getting easier and easier to smile and actually mean it these days. Especially if they were Steve induced smiles. He shifted, cuddling Steve instead of being on the opposite side of the couch. Steve didn’t bat an eye at that, just made space for Bucky to get comfortable.

 

They might’ve fallen asleep because the next thing they saw was Nat with her phone directed at them and a coy expression on her face.

 

“What you doing?” Bucky said, voice sleepy. He was comfortable enough around Natasha to not get startled or defensive in her presence. That had taken a while to conquer, nonetheless, he did it.

 

His therapist had told him to acknowledge positive things in his daily life that may be small but had improved since he had come back. Not freaking out on Nat was going directly to that list.

 

“Gathering intel for the group chat,” Nat said typing away on her phone.

 

Bucky groaned and buried his face on Steve’s chest which made the other man chuckle. “She's a menace, Stevie,” Bucky mumbled, voice muffled by the sweater Steve was wearing.

 

“I’ll leave you to it.” She said already walking out of the door and their apartment.

 

Steve gathered Bucky even closer. “Where were we?” Cuddly Steve was the best Steve. Bucky let himself sleep in his arms once again. Sleep was one of the things that were still quite hard even after all this time. So anytime he had the opportunity to nap in Steve’s arms he never took for granted, it was always easier knowing he was there to ground him and make him feel safe and warm.

 

Bucky eased himself onto the internet. He was on the group chat with the others and that was fine, so he figured the rest of the internet wasn’t all that bad. Oh boy, was he wrong. He created an Instagram account and started sharing some pictures of things he did. Never his face, he wasn’t stupid. But little bits of his walks through New York, his embroidery - he had picked it up as a joke but ended up loving it - and his life with Steve.

 

That’s what got him in trouble. He never posted pictures of their faces, but people seemed to know it was them anyway. And they scrutinized every little detail.

 

He didn’t let it stop him, though. Talking to Steve about it, he didn’t seem to mind at all, it was all innocent and unpretentious pictures after all. Now he didn’t mind letting his metal hand show or being so very careful with hiding his identity.

 

Steve was on a mission, so that left Bucky all alone for at least a week. That’s how he first learned what ‘Stucky' was. It was all over the comments of his posts, there was even a hashtag. He clicked on it. He dived head first into fangirl content. There was so much to see.

 

Bucky wasn’t dumb, let’s get that clear. He knew his fair share about technology, he had just avoided this side of the internet for a very long time.

 

It still shocked him to see how many people loved his relationship with Steve, it impressed him because as much as he had hoped the world had changed in 70 years, very little had actually changed. He figures there will always be bigots, at least now people could get married to whoever they loved.

 

He looked through fanart, some made him honest to god blush. But what got to him was the stories people imagined him and Steve in. There were plenty of those. There were happy ones, sad ones and everything in between. His heart was racing a little.

 

He spent hours and hours looking through some of them, some were pretty good, some were so accurate that he had to take some time to digest, some scared the shit out of him because that was exactly everything he felt for Steve Rogers and Bucky couldn’t deal with it. Some even made him cry, that was a surprise for him, too.

 

He started getting a little antsy, because he figured that if all of those people on the internet had him figured out, he could only wonder that Steve knew, too. And it made him wonder why hadn’t Steve said anything? Maybe he didn’t want to hurt Bucky’s feelings by turning him down even if gently.

 

That was before he saw the videos and gifs people had made of them. One could be fooled by the way Steve and Bucky looked at each other. He could see why people thought something was going on between them. He saw pictures side by side of them wearing the same clothes, being gentle with each other when they thought the attention wasn’t on them.

 

But they had been friends for almost as long as they had been alive and with that came an intimacy that couldn’t be easily explained.

 

And there was Bucky sitting on the couch of their apartment trying to convince himself that all he and Steve had was friendship. They were just friends. He decided to stop thinking about it before he went spiraling into a train of thought he didn’t really want to dive in.

 

That lasted approximately three hours, though. Then he was searching for more and stumbled across a playlist with songs that supposedly were their relationship through and through.

 

It started with a song called Friends by Ed Sheeran. Bucky wanted to cry again. The lyrics hit him right on his heart. People had no idea how right they were. Or maybe they did.

 

-

 

It was winter, they couldn’t afford to have the heater on the whole night, that’s why they cuddled up with all the blankets they owned, yes, all four of them on top of their curled up bodies.

They had been doing that for the better part of the month, Steve hadn’t gotten sick this winter yet and Bucky prayed he skipped this one. He couldn't bear another scare like last year. Steve almost dying on him and there not being anything that could be done. He felt helpless.

That thought came and went through Bucky’s mind and it made him hold Steve closer to him, the smaller man pushing his cold nose on Bucky’s neck. He should probably try and get some sleep, but it was hard to come by tonight. Then he heard it.

“I love you, Buck” Steve sighed into his neck. Bucky sucked in a breath and adjusted himself on the bed so he could brush his nose on Steve’s.

Steve reached up and brushed his lips against Bucky’s. Bucky might have stopped breathing altogether at that moment. It was feather light and still sent what felt like a lightning bolt through his whole body.

He pretended to be asleep and heard Steve’s sigh again. He never mentioned it to anybody. He sometimes wondered if he had dreamed it after all.

 

-

 

The next song brought Bucky back from his memories. He didn’t remember that one. He sucked in a breath. Steve had kissed him. He was shaking a little. The song that was playing now was Centuries by Fall Out Boy. It made him smile. Steve did remember him, kept him as a painful and fond memory until he came back.

 

Talk me down by Troye Sivan came right next. As Bucky listened to it his heart’s rate picked up. When he first came back he thought that all he was doing was hurting Steve. At first for not being the man he remembered, then for being too scared of hurting him again that the flinched any time Steve tried touching him.

 

At the same time, he could remember feeling so lonely in his head and all he wanted was to have Steve close to him again. It hurt wanting something so bad but physically not being able to have it. His mind wouldn't let him even get close to the man he loved. It took time and so much effort to do as much as hug Steve for three seconds.

 

In spite of everything, Steve not once gave up on him or left him feeling like he didn’t want him right there beside him. It still amazed Bucky the patience Steve had the first few months. It made his heart hurt but in the best way possible. Like he was being warmed from inside out.

 

He missed Steve. Maybe it was time for a call.

 

“Hey," Steve answered the phone chipper after barely three rings.

 

“Hey yourself,” Bucky said with a smile on his voice.

 

“Still haven’t burned the apartment down?”

 

“That would be you, Mr. I-Learned-How-To-Cook-Okay-Bucky” Bucky mimicked Steve’s deep voice. And at that Steve laughed. They talked for a few more minutes.

 

“I miss you,” Bucky said softly.

 

“I miss you, too. I’ll be back in two days.”

 

“Seems too far away.” Bucky hated sounding so needy, but he couldn’t help it.

 

“What can I do to make it up for spending so long far from home?” Bucky could hear Tony’s voice saying something along the line of ‘phone sex while we’re all here? Steve you pervert’. Bucky snorted at that and hummed pretending to think.

 

“Hm, what you’re wearing, Steve?” He finally said, voice low and hoarse.

 

He could only imagine the face Steve must have pulled because he heard Tony screaming again saying ‘oh my god, you totally are’ in an accusatory tone.

 

Bucky laughed at that “Stevie, just come back soon, be careful.”

 

“I’ll be, try not to miss me too much.”

 

“Already failed at that.”

 

“Oh Buck”

 

“See you, punk. Love you”

 

“See you, jerk. I love you, too.”

 

If Bucky clutched his phone to his chest after the call, there was nobody on the apartment to judge him. That night he went to bed with the thought of Steve being as in love with him as he was with him.

 

The next morning he made breakfast listening to that same playlist. There were songs in it that really matched their relationship and others that were just wishful thinking, songs that portrayed both of them already in love and living a happy life together. It was nice, too.

 

Then a song called Steve by Jeremy Messersmith made him think of all the girls that rejected Steve back in the day when he was still small and Bucky had loved him the same. How many time had he tried to convince Steve that he was worth more than he could see? That he was special and that the right girl would see that.

 

He wanted to be that person, he already saw Steve for all he was, the good, the bad, the awesome, the awful. And he still wanted all of it.

 

Steve opened the door right after Bucky flipped the last pancake. He had come back home early. He hurriedly turned off the stove and ran to hug him at the door. Steve hugged him back tight, breathing him in, enjoying the moment and it made Bucky wonder. He had seen the videos, the way Steve looked at him, it mirrored the way Bucky looked right back at Steve, mostly when he thought the other wouldn’t notice.

 

The songs continued to play, Bucky ordered Steve to the bathroom to take a shower while he finished making their breakfast.

 

By the time Steve had finished his shower Bucky was setting the table for them and Steve hugged him from behind, “Missed this” Steve mumbled and Bucky smiled putting his hands over Steve’s on his waist, “Missed you,” he said and turned around in Steve’s arms to look him in the eye. He saw the same admiration and love in Steve’s eyes he had seen on the videos and in his wildest dreams, the ones they ended up together.

 

After sharing that moment their stomachs growled almost at the same time and the cracked up, hurrying to eat their breakfast. Steve talked about the mission, about the Avengers and Bucky laughed at some stories and nodded along others.

 

He had almost forgotten about the songs playing on the background when Steve commented on them. “Not your usual sound, this was what you were up to while I was gone?”

 

“Something like that, do you like it?” Bucky asked suddenly a little nervous.

 

“Some of them sound a bit sad.”

 

“You could say that,” Bucky responded paying attention to the song playing that moment something about being sick of losing soulmates and both being fucked up, Bucky almost laughed at the accuracy of it.

 

Steve smiled at him before getting up and stretching, a small fraction of his abs showing, “I’m beat, going to take a nap. Join me?” Bucky didn’t even answer, just got up and started putting things away so they could go to Steve’s bedroom and sleep.

 

He turned off the music and they headed to the bedroom.

 

Both laid on the bed facing the other, they were so close their noses almost touched. Their legs were intertwined and their eyes already half closed.

 

“Steve" Bucky whispered.

 

“Yeah"

 

Bucky took a deep breath, steadying himself. He put his hand on Steve’s cheek.

 

“What is it, Bucky?” Steve whispered so low as if saying anything any louder would break the spell. Bucky didn’t answer.

 

He leaned in, slowly, letting Steve know his intentions and stop him if it wasn’t something he wanted. Steve leaned in the rest of the way. When their lips met halfway both of them gasped.

 

Steve grabbed Bucky’s t-shirt to bring him closer and Bucky opened his mouth a little. They were kissing like they wish they could have done long before today. It was over 80 years of pent-up want, and they were finally doing it.

 

Steve pulled away, his eyes still closed, touched his forehead to Bucky’s.

 

“Please, tell me this isn’t some one-time thing.”

 

“It isn’t. I’m in love with you.”

 

“I’ve been in love with you for so long,” Steve’s eyes were wet.

 

“Stevie,” Bucky pulled him even closer “I’m here now, for as long as you’ll have me.”

 

“Forever, then”

 

“Yeah, pal, till the end of the line.”

 

“Till the end of the line,” Steve said against Bucky’s mouth, right before kissing him again. He took his time, they had the time now. He wouldn’t waste it, but he knew he had the love of his life for as long as he lived. He knew they would make the most of it and be happy for all the sadness that they went through. They deserved it.

**Author's Note:**

> So I'll sneak the link for my spotify playlist here, feel free to check it out.  
> https://open.spotify.com/user/biamarinita/playlist/1o5VmuL1aDkM9dqi6Ug1Bg?si=Qvmj2P02TZSmveBR9Jl46A


End file.
